Spencer Sweeney: Viva Las Vegas

spencer swe eney V I V A L A S V E G A S

CFA – 2017

SPENCER SWEENEY VIVA LA S VEG A S

CFA – 2017

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Revelrous encounters between body and spirit in Spencer Sweeney’s Viva las Vegas

shapes: oblong or rectangular, bulging or protruding. This cubist rearranging of features is one of a few gestures in which the paintings are attentive to their place in the lineage of modern painting. Magritte’s pipe floats in

by Camila McHugh

Opening the Door to the Invisible and Matisse’s use of color and curve is palpable throughout the works. Unlike Matisse’s cutouts, of which the works

A relverous tone pulses through the paintings in Spencer Sweeney’s Viva

are vaguely reminiscent, here, the contours of the human body are painted

las Vegas at Contemporary Fine Arts gallery. Walking through the gallery,

over or not filled in completely. These perimeters facilitate their own trans-

the viewer is invited into a messy festivity, its crude and colorful dredges.

gression, visualizing the way the border of the body is consistently being

Beneath a festive air, however, the paintings reveal grotesque and absurd

breached. Indeed, our own experience as body dwellers is not static. We

interactions. Each painting becomes a sketchpad to scratch the surface

eat, fuck, love, trust, cry, sweat, shout – our body’s physical and emotional

of this human experience, an attempt to express its possibilities and con-

perimeters are anything but impermeable.

straints. Sweeney tallies the big questions on his mind during months of introspection in the studio: What are the limitations of human experience?

In pointedly titled Dweller in the Flesh, for example, gentle curves and

Are we capable of emotional boundlessness? How do we engage with this

thick blue and yellow brush strokes gesture towards a naked figure, may-

fundamental uncertainty? Far from proposing answers, Sweeney traces the

be two. Bodies must be imagined here from the white space, across which

process of engaging with these questions – in its frustration, perversion, ab-

phallic shapes droop and a flower blooms. There are traces of the grotesque

surdity – as a way of broaching the human experience.

in the bulging chin in Bruce, drooping nose in Sage and Muse and the pickle-shaped features that are volleyed across portraits. There is a certain glee

Sweeney’s paintings begin their play with the generative possibility

in the unsettling effect of these images. In Self Portrait, for instance, wide

of uncertainty on the level of the human body. More than half the works

eyes and gaping mouth are at once menacing and playful. Scratched lines

in the show are oil crayon self-portraits. The drawings are loosely grounded

in multi-colored crayon evoke a dynamic sense of self, as the marks that

in Sweeney’s reflection, distorting and developing from there. In a similar

give the face form simultaneously cross it out. Indeed, the ambiguous ex-

motion, through these scrawled faces, Sweeney lays a necessary ground-

pression seems to continually evolve: is this a shout in fear, threat or jest?

work before turning to paint and tracing attempts to find a truth beyond

Harsh etching on cheeks and nose, simultaneously violent and childlike in

the body. He reimagines the body and face through a piecing together of

its raucous color scheme, underscores this uncertainty. His eyes float like

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stars, as if the uncapped head gives way to a galaxy. The drawing choreo-

shapes are loosely mimicked by triangles that emerge in red negative space

graphs various expressions of fluidity and uncertainty, allowing them to in-

and green scrawl in the upper left corner, becoming the traces of more

terrupt and layer atop each other.

quickly abandoned attempts at illumination. Ultimately, one ray of light is directed back at the head in the portrait, perhaps indicating an inevitable

Grounded in an uncontained bodily experience, Sweeney attempts to

return to the self in any quest for something beyond.

give shape to a human longing for boundlessness. The head opening up to a night sky in Self Portrait is one such manifestation. Each painting becomes

Symbology recurs throughout the work, drawing upon ancient at-

a portrait of the process of grasping for vastness, an inherently iterative

tempts to invoke the divine. A serpent symbol branded on an egg-shape in

and perhaps fundamentally frustrated proposition. In a parallel gesture, the

‘Rune’ evokes an origin story and a mandala spirals from the center of Viva

crude uncertainty of the human body becomes a map for a broader spiritual

Divine Diva. As Sweeney juggles these shapes across paintings, he stages

uncertainty. Working on several canvases simultaneously, Sweeney’s paint-

encounters between the bodily and the divine: the egg in ‘Rune’ lies nes-

ings become a collection of attempts that react and respond to one another.

tled atop two phallic pickles, the mandala in Viva Divine Diva becomes bel-

He layers paint in thick gestures that are ultimately contained by the can-

ly-like, interrupted by a yellow breast. These interactions become sketches

vas. Sweeney is attentive to this register of attempted expression, lending

for perverse attempts at mystical encounters, while also destabilizing the

form to the tension between sensing the possibility of boundlessness and

distinction between the corporeal and spiritual. The search for boundless-

remaining constrained.

ness assumes a groping gesture: a blind and tactile search. Recasting the search for the divine as a crude fondling dislocates the register usually re-

In Viva Divine Diva, Sweeney uses light refractions as a way of ac-

served for these pursuits. Accordingly, by leveraging ancient iconography,

cessing this tension. Yellow triangles beam with a heavy stroke, refracting

Sweeney destabilizes and broadens the visual language associated with the

across the canvas. As refractions, these beams are disconnected from any

mystical pursuit. Titles like The Eternal Unfoldment Of Life (Hardcore Jol-

source of emanation. What they illuminate is similarly obscure, as the rays

lies) and Fragments Of The Infinite With Chairs articulate this broadened

are interrupted by the contours of the canvas and notably disconnected

register. Where grotesque realism observes the spiritual degraded to the

from the mandala at its center. Where rays of light are associated with an

brute, the works in Viva las Vegas seem to celebrate this slippage. Indeed,

illuminating possibility, this light illuminates nothing and thus visualiz-

through a veneer of bright reds and yellows, these paintings propose an ex-

es attempted enlightenment or the frustrated search for meaning. These

pansive revelry, embracing the uncertainty that lurks under the surface.

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XXX, 2016

Jazz Party Celebration (Horny), 2016/2017

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Dupply Self Conquerer, 2016/2017 Viva Divine Diva, 2016/2017

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Alexandria, 2016/2017

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Swing Bone Tarot, 2016/2017

The Aesthete, 2016/2017

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Steppers Groove Peace Out, 2016/2017

Minotaur, 2016/2017

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Bruce, 2016/2017

Fragments Of The Infinite With Chairs, 2016/2017

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Reveler, 2016/2017

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Opening The Door To The Invisible, 2016/2017

Rune, 2016/2017

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One Boot, 2016/2017

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LIST OF WORKS

Untitled, 2016 Ölkreide auf Leinwand / oil crayon on canvas 134 × 103 cm / 52 3/4 × 40 1/2 in Ss/G 01/00

Girl with Cat, 2016/2017

Reveler, 2016/2017

Öl auf Leinwand / oil on canvas 167,5 × 114 cm / 66 × 45 in

Öl auf Holzbrett / oil on wooden board 45,7 × 31,8 cm / 18 × 12 1/2 in

Ss/M 1839

Ss/M 1853/00

The First Slot Machine, 2016/2017

Viva Divine Diva, 2016/2017

Öl auf Leinwand / oil on canvas 127 × 96,5 cm / 50 × 38 in

Öl auf Leinwand / oil on canvas 177,8 × 132,1 cm / 70 × 52 in

Party Painting (Art Ball), 2016/2017

Ss/M 1826/00

Ss/M 1841/00

Öl auf Leinwand / oil on canvas 121,9 × 91,4 cm / 48 × 36 in Ss/M 1854/00

Untitled, 2016 Ölkreide auf Leinwand / oil crayon on canvas 134 × 103 cm / 52 3/4 × 40 1/2 in Ss/G 02/00

Swing Bone Tarot, 2016/2017 Öl auf Leinwand / oil on canvas 223,5 × 142,2 cm / 88 × 56 in Ss/M 1828/00

The Idealistic Philosopher (Green Bowl), 2016/2017 Öl auf Leinwand / oil on canvas 61 × 50,8 cm / 24 × 20 in Ss/M 1843/00

Self Portrait with Carrot, 2015 Öl auf Leinwand / oil on canvas 129,5 × 81,3 cm / 51 × 32 in Ss/M 1/00

Party Painting (Dance) Bild ist in USA 27.1.2017 Bruno, 2016 Öl auf Leinwand / oil on canvas 152,4 × 101,6 cm / 60 × 40 in Ss/M 1855/00

Mother and Child, 2016/2017 Öl auf Leinwand / oil on canvas 274,3 × 198,1 cm / 108 × 78 in Ss/M 1829/00

Rune, 2016/2017 Öl auf Leinwand / oil on canvas 152,4 × 109,2 cm / 60 × 43 in Ss/M 1844/00

Not yet titled Bild ist in USA 27.1.2017 Bruno, 2016

Alexandria, 2016/2017

Öl auf Leinwand / oil on canvas 223,5 × 304,8 cm / 88 × 120 in

Öl auf Leinwand / oil on canvas 152,4 × 109,2 cm / 60 × 43 in

Ss/M 1819/00

Ss/M 1830/00

One Boot, 2016/2017 Öl auf Leinwand / oil on canvas 121,9 × 76,2 cm / 48 × 30 in Ss/M 1865/00

Melvins, 2016/2017 Öl auf Leinwand / oil on canvas 115 × 85 cm / 45 1/4 × 33 1/2 in SS/M 1845/00

Dupply Self Conquerer, 2016/2017 Öl auf Leinwand / oil on canvas 162,6 × 101,6 cm / 64 × 40 in Ss/M 1871/00

Jazz Party Celebration (Horny), 2016/2017 Öl auf Leinwand / oil on canvas 223,5 × 297,2 cm / 88 × 117 in

Bruce, 2016/2017 Öl auf Leinwand / oil on canvas 35 × 28 cm / 13 3/4 × 11 in Ss/M 1831/00

Ss/M 1820/00

Church Lady, 2016/2017 Öl auf Leinwand / oil on canvas 73,7 × 50,8 cm / 29 × 20 in Ss/M 1847/00

The Aesthete, 2016/2017

Fragments Of The Infinite With Chairs, 2016/2017

Öl auf Leinwand / oil on canvas 122 × 76 cm / 48 × 30 in

Öl auf Leinwand / oil on canvas 121 × 76 cm / 47 2/3 × 30 in

Ss/M 1822/00

Ss/M 1832/00

Breakfast, 2016/2017

Stone Fruit, 2016/2017

Öl auf Leinwand / oil on canvas 165,1 × 104,1 cm / 65 × 41 in

Öl auf Leinwand / oil on canvas 121,9 × 76,2 cm / 48 × 30 in

Ss/M 1824/00

Ss/M 1833/00

Öl auf Leinwand / oil on canvas 127 × 94 cm / 50 × 37 in Ss/M 1873/00

Öl auf Leinwand / oil on canvas 137,2 × 101,6 cm / 54 × 40 in Ss/M 1849/00

Minotaur, 2016/2017 Dweller In The Flash, 2016/2017

The Eternal Unfoldment Of Life (Hardcore Jollies), 2016/2017

Öl auf Leinwand / oil on canvas 167,6 × 106,7 cm / 66 × 42 in

Opening The Door To The Invisible, 2016/2017 Öl auf Leinwand / oil on canvas 121,9 × 121,9 cm / 48 × 48 in Ss/M 1874/00

Ss/M 1851/00

Hope You Like Jamming Too, 2016/2017 Steppers Groove Peace Out, 2016/2017 Öl auf Leinwand / oil on canvas 129,5 × 81,3 cm / 51 × 32 in Ss/M 1852/00

Öl auf Leinwand / oil on canvas 65,5 × 57 cm / 25 3/4 × 22 1/2 in Ss/M 1875/00

Dieser Katalog erscheint anlässlich der Ausstellung / This catalogue is published on the occasion of the exhibition

S P E N C E S W E E N E V I V LAS V E G A

R Y A S

28 Januar – 8 March 2017

Contemporary Fine Arts, Berlin

Grolmanstrasse 32–33 10623 Berlin - Charlottenburg Tel. + 49 (30) 88 777 167 Copyright 2017 Spencer Sweeney Contemporary Fine Arts Interview xxx Übersetzung / Translation xxx Gestaltung / Design Sarah Nöllenheidt / NOC Fotografie / Photography Matthias Kolb